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Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. The portrait of this African American family has such a powerful impact that it has become a widely used representation for many aspects of the Civil War era. Donated in 2010 to the Library of Congress, the photograph is already a …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following guest post is by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division In honor of African American History Month, this gathering of extraordinary individual and group portraits by contemporary artists features works that speak of community, family, and the envisioned past, present, and future. Nelson Stevens’s vibrant screenprint called Spirit Sister, …
Posted in: African American History, Portraits, Prints
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Victoria Bankole, an Archives, History, and Heritage Advanced Intern in the Prints & Photographs Division in spring 2020. “Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.” — Octavia E. Butler Just as author Octavia Butler created herself through writing, photographers such as Roland Freeman use their …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Jonathan Eaker, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. Recently while going through some military photos in our collection I came across a set of twelve undigitized group portraits showing African American soldiers at the time of the Spanish American War. The photos launched me on research about a …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs, Portraits
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. African American women as well as men assumed civic responsibilities in the decades after the Civil War. William Henry Richards (1856-1941) was active in several organizations that promoted civil rights and civil liberties for African Americans at the end …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs, Portraits, Women's History
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
August was designated as National Black Business Month in 2004. Just about a century earlier, visitors to the Paris Exposition of 1900 also had an opportunity to appreciate the entrepreneurial endeavors of African Americans. The Exposition included a display devoted to the history and “present conditions” of African Americans. W.E.B. Du Bois and special agent …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
On February 1, 1960, four young men sat down at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and ordered coffee and doughnuts. More than fifty years later, this may not seem like a daring act, but it was. First the waitress and then the store manager explained that the lunch counter was reserved for …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The selection of pictures shared in our latest album posted on the photosharing site, Flickr, made me reflect not only on the strong associations in my own past between summer and corn on the cob, but also how fertile corn’s visual potential is. In fact, corn has traditionally been a symbol of life and fertility, …
Posted in: Flickr, Photographs, Postcards
Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson
The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?” – Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Today marks the birthday of Satchel Paige, one of the greatest baseball players to stand on the pitcher’s mound, and we find some …
Posted in: African American History, Photographs